Hailed in Opernwelt Berlin as “vocally brilliant, dramatically spontaneous, and thoroughly alive,” internationally renowned opera singer, voice professor, and Curtis alumna Constance Fee (Opera ’77) has garnered acclaim for her 
performances of over 50 soprano and mezzo-soprano roles. Throughout her career, she graced the stages of such prestigious houses as the Opéra de la Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Netherlands Opera, Staatsoper Stuttgart, l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Belgium, and Houston Grand Opera, and appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic and the Czech Philharmonic before joining the faculty of Roberts Wesleyan University as the director of vocal studies and associate professor of vocal performance in Rochester, New York. Ms. Fee has also taught voice and French diction on the faculty of the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Périgueux, France, and since 2014, has been a member of the voice faculty of the Crescendo Summer Institute in Tokaj, Hungary.
Born to an orthodontist father and classical vocalist mother who taught voice and played organ and piano, Ms. Fee began taking piano lessons at age four, discovered her love for singing at 15, and eventually followed in her mother’s footsteps to study at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., where she received her bachelor’s degree in music education. Touring with the famous choir and performing at Lincoln Center under the baton of such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41), Ms. Fee’s studies eventually led her to Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music for her master’s degree in vocal performance, and Curtis, studying with legendary teacher Margaret Harshaw.
What circumstances, whether in your formative years or as you continued your studies, led you to apply to Curtis?
When it came time to graduate from Westminster, I had a wonderful teacher who taught an opera course. After my student teaching in the fall of my senior year, he sat me down and asked, “Graduating in May, are we? What are you going to do?” I said, “I know one thing: I’m not teaching in public school. It’s not for me.” He laughed and said, “You know you have to sing, right?” I said, “Yes.”
For years, I would sit in the Westminster Symphonic Choir and look at the soloists working with the conductor up front. I’d watch them breathe, interact, and listen to their performances. I knew that was what I wanted to do. I asked him for advice on how I could get there, and he told me I needed to study with Margaret Harshaw, who he said was the best voice teacher in the country. She taught for many years at Indiana University and at Curtis from 1970 to ’77. She taught at both schools, so I auditioned at Curtis and also at AVA (as my backup). I was ridiculously naïve but had incredible exposure to high-level singing at Westminster. My voice teacher was Diane Curry, who sang at [New York] City Opera for many years.
My audition at Curtis was interesting. At Westminster, we had a small vocal group that did baroque music. The conductor of that group gave me a wonderful bravura aria by [Polish Baroque-era composer] Damian Stachowicz, with lots of runs and high notes. I learned it and used it for my audition at Curtis, along with a Mozart aria and some other pieces. I was singing mezzo at the time, and I had my four pieces but no opera experience. They were all there at the audition—Rudolf Serkin, Mme. Gregory, Max Rudolf, Dino Yiannopoulos, and Ms. Harshaw. At the time, I didn’t really understand what Curtis was: To me, it was just this music school in a house behind the Academy of Music, where Westminster Choir performed often. I just knew that I wanted to study with that teacher.
I started with the baroque piece, and then they asked for “Must the Winter Come so Soon” [from Samuel Barber’s (Composition ’34) opera Vanessa]. The woman playing the audition was also on staff at the Music Academy of the West, so it’s not possible that she didn’t know the repertoire. As she started playing the Barber, I realized something was wrong and said to her out loud, “Oh no, that’s the wrong tempo!” I think they might have wanted to see how I would handle that. In the end, I did just fine. Anyway, I got into both schools, and when the assignments came, I was put in Charles Kullman’s studio. [Eventually, Ms. Fee switched studios to work with Margaret Harshaw, followed her to Indiana, and ultimately, back to Curtis].
I was there with Sharon Sweet, Carlos Serrano (Opera ’77), Michael Myers (Opera ’77), and Sally Wolf (Opera ’77), now teaching at AVA. I spent time at IU from ’73 to ’76, went to Marlboro for the summer, and then went back to Curtis for the opera program in the fall of 1976. Then, in the spring of my opera certificate year at Curtis, which was Harshaw’s last year, Curtis got a call from Plato Karayanis (Voice ’56) asking for a baritone and a mezzo to come to NYC to audition for the first year of the Merola program. [Ms. Fee auditioned alongside baritone Carlos Serrano for Mr. Karayanis but was recommended for the inaugural Houston Opera Studio with Houston Grand Opera].
I had already decided to go to Europe, visit my friends who had fest positions there, and do some auditions. But I thought, well if he’s gone to this trouble, I’ll go ahead and do the HGO audition. So I went back to New York, walked into the cattle call, and saw all the divas with the hair, dresses, and makeup milling around. I went in for my turn and saw the little table with the phone David Gockley had spoken on when I called him to arrange my audition time. There he was with Carlisle Floyd. I walked in, and sang my entire package: Composer’s Aria, Cenerentola, a French aria, and I was probably still using “Must the Winter Come so Soon” [from Samuel Barber’s Vanessa] for my English aria. As I came down the steps of the little stage, Carlisle Floyd took my elbow, walked me out into the lobby with all the other singers, and said, “You’re exactly what we’re looking for. Can you come to Houston at the end of August? This program is to replace the need for American singers to have to go to Europe to start their careers.”
I wouldn’t have learned how to sing or had the life I now enjoy if it hadn’t been for Curtis. It was absolutely life-changing for me.
What were some of your fondest memories of attending Curtis, and are there any specific moments or performances that stand out as most memorable?
There were often performances in II-J, including Rigoletto and Pelléas et Mélisande. We did some big productions there with piano; we also performed at the Walnut Street Theatre, where I did a Così [fan tutte] with Julia Conwell (Opera ’77) as my Fiordiligi. I remember a wonderful performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream there. My nickname was “Hermia-on-the-Ground” because of one of the lines in the text. Gwendolyn Bradley (Opera ’77) was singing Tytania. Someone in the cast wore a long train in that production, and there I am, on the ground; they walk over me, and the train with all the dust and dirt is dragged over my head while I’m lying there. [Laughs] After Curtis, my life took a completely different direction than I had ever anticipated. Now, I’m in my second career and I’ve been teaching longer than my 20-year performing career.
What was it like studying with Margaret Harshaw, who taught at Curtis during the 1970s?
Miss Harshaw started her Met career as a mezzo and then switched to soprano. As I understand it, she still holds the record for performing the most Wagner roles there because she sang all the mezzo roles and then all the soprano roles. She had years of experience and knew what she was doing. She had incredible training and was a remarkable teacher.
Harshaw studied with a woman named Anna E. Schoen-René at Juilliard, and Schoen-René had studied with Pauline Viardot-García and her brother Manuel García, so her work with them was just two generations ago. The Garcias lived until they were 89 and 101 years old—probably because of their deep breathing! At first, she was very nurturing and encouraging and, you know, carefully, slowly, tediously, over and over, getting things built in from the ground up. I had a natural technique, but I had no clue how to develop it and make it consistent.
Miss Harshaw lined everything up and gave me access to skills without my even realizing it. It was just because of the work she did, the exercises she gave me, and the way she described things with images and sounds. She had a way of really getting you in touch with your natural instincts. When you did something that touched her artistically, her eyes would brim with tears, and she would look at you and say, “I wish I could give you everything I know right now.” She was very demanding, and when you didn’t do something she knew you were capable of, another side of her personality would appear, her eyes would flare, and I would hear her say, at the top of her voice, “Well, Schoen-René only had to say it ONCE!”
Then there were her stories. I would listen to stories for hours, learning about the profession. When an interviewer once asked her the most important qualities a singer must have to become a successful artist, she said, “Integrity, integrity, and integrity.” Now, I try to guide my students to their own natural instincts. I tell them that I can’t teach them how to sing, but I can show them that they already know how. As a singer, it’s probably never going to sound good to you in your own head. You may not like how you think it sounds, but you’re going to love how it feels.
What advice do you have for current Curtis vocal students and recent alumni?
Focus on your gift and on developing it to its fullest potential. Get the help you need. Speak up. Be your own advocate. Don’t just do what you see other people do. Do what’s right for you. There’s no written pathway now. When I was at Curtis and IU, there was a path you could follow that was already laid out: You went to Europe, sang for the agents, got a fest job in an opera house, and gained your street creds there. Now, you can make videos, put them up on Instagram, and start your career here. There’s no clear, defined pathway now. You can make your own pathway, but always be true to yourself. Don’t let other people take advantage of your talent, and don’t use it to get somewhere. Use it to say something. Whoever you are, you are unique, and you owe it to the world to discover your gifts and develop your art.
Interview with Constance Fee by Ryan Scott Lathan.
Please visit the Curtis Institute of Music Open Archives and Recitals (CIMOAR). Learn more about Curtis’s library and archives HERE.
All photos courtesy of Constance Fee. Top banner image by Christian Steiner and photo 8 by Lisa Kohler. Photo 3 of Ms. Fee as Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann from Vienna Volksoper. Photo 5 is Curtis’s graduating class of 1977, courtesy of the Curtis Archives; Ms. Fee is in the first row on the right. Images of Ms. Fee performing the title roles in Carmen (6, 9, 12) and La Cenerentola (4, 7, 11) all taken from productions at Stadttheater Luzern. Photo 10 of Ms. Fee as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Welsh National Opera.
Throughout the 2024–25 season, Great to Groundbreaking, Curtis students—some of the finest young musicians in the world—move from the classroom to the stage, sharing their extraordinary passion for classical music through thrilling performances alongside internationally renowned guest artists, faculty, and alumni. The centennial season combines beloved repertoire favorites—such as Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia; Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1; Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op. 14; Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8; Claude Debussy’s La mer; and Leonard Bernstein’s No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” and comic operetta, Candide—with breathtaking new works—including the East Coast premiere of The Comet / Poppea at Philadelphia’s 23rd Street Armory, featuring composer George Lewis’ setting of W.E.B. Du Bois’ proto-Afrofuturist science fiction short story, The Comet, juxtaposed with Claudio Monteverdi’s hot-blooded political thriller, L’incoronazione di Poppea. The season also features an array of new compositions, world premieres, and much more. Subscription tickets are available April 2 at 
Hailed as “both a conservatory and a buzzword…known for taking the best music students in the world” (Washington Post), Curtis is excited to welcome its 160-member student body of exceptionally gifted young musicians to the school this fall as they hone their impressive artistic talents. In this unique and inclusive environment, they are nurtured by a celebrated faculty, supported by a merit-based, tuition-free policy, and inspired by the school’s distinctive learn-by-doing approach.
October 27: In the opening concert of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra series, eminent Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and GRAMMY Award-winning ensemble Time For Three in a concert of towering works that celebrate the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit in the face of great adversity, and defy genre with Jean Sibelius’ patriotic tone poem Finlandia, Jennifer Higdon’s (’88) bluegrass-tinged Concerto 4-3, and Sergei Prokofiev’s heroic Symphony No. 5.
November 23:
December 13: The continues with an electrifying performance by prizewinning violinist Ray Chen (’10) under the baton of acclaimed composer, pianist, and clarinetist Teddy Abrams (Conducting ’08). The program features composer and producer TJ Cole’s (’17) moving work Death of a Poet, and legendary composer George Walker’s (Piano and Composition ’45) landmark 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning song cycle for vocal soloist and orchestra, Lilacs. Mr. Chen performs Samuel Barber’s (’34) monumental Violin Concerto, and the concert concludes with Aaron Copland’s ambitious, patriotic Symphony No. 3.
April 26: The 2024–25 series concludes with a guest appearance by one of the world’s most celebrated pianists, superstar Curtis alumna Yuja Wang (’08), performing Leonard Bernstein’s (Conducting ’41) astonishing, jazz-influenced Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety.” She joins the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin for a delightful program of classical music masterpieces featuring Lili Boulanger’s joyful D’un Matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning), Maurice Ravel’s sumptuous orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade, and Claude Debussy’s evocative childhood recollections of the sea, the atmospheric symphonic sketches, La mer.
November 1–3: Curtis Opera Theatre launches its historic 2024–25 series with the highly anticipated East Coast premiere of The Comet / Poppea, featuring MacArthur Award-winning composer George Lewis’ and librettist Douglas Kearney’s wildly inventive operatic setting of Pan-Africanist civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1920 science fiction short story, The Comet, juxtaposed with Claudio Monteverdi’s hot-blooded political thriller, L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) from 1643. Presented at Philadelphia’s historic 23rd Street Armory on a turntable stage divided in two halves, these worlds unfold simultaneously, with the stage’s rotation creating a visual and sonic spiral for audiences—inviting associations, dissociations, collisions, and confluences. Directed and conceived by fellow MacArthur-winner Yuval Sharon, this innovative co-production features a stellar cast of Curtis singers led by conductor Marc Lowenstein, founding music director of The Industry in Los Angeles. Developed over six years, The Comet / Poppea is realized through a landmark partnership among organizations across the United States, produced by Anthony Roth Costanzo and Cath Brittan, The Industry, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), and Curtis Institute of Music. Performed in English and Italian with English supertitles.
February 27–March 2: The Curtis Opera Theatre’s series continues with one of the great comic operas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterpiece, Le nozze di Figaro, a razor-sharp social satire with glorious arias, hilarious duets and trios, a toe-tapping overture, and an ingenious libretto that bursts to the seams with wit and invention. Distinguished conductor Nicholas McGegan OBE and acclaimed director Marcus Shields return to lead an exciting cast of young opera stars and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra at the Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center. Performed in Italian with English supertitles.
April 11, 13: This historic Curtis Opera Theatre series closes with Leonard Bernstein’s (Conducting ’41) 20th-century operetta, Candide at the Forrest Theatre, one of America’s oldest theaters. Filled with sparkling wit, soaring melodies, and globe-trotting grandeur, this bitingly clever adaptation of Voltaire’s philosophical French novella is an absurdist romp across “the best of all possible worlds.” Led by internationally renowned conductor David Charles Abell and visionary theater and opera director Emma Griffin, this darkly satirical tale of youthful innocence and human folly in war-torn times of crisis is as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1759. Performed in English with English supertitles.
October 12: The first concert of the Curtis New Music Ensemble series celebrates this year’s composer in residence with a “Portrait of Gabriela Ortiz,” featuring works by the Latin GRAMMY-nominated composer and educator. One of Mexico’s most prominent composers, with an international career that includes recent commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic to the BBC Scottish Symphony and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ms. Ortiz’s music incorporates seemingly disparate musical worlds, from traditional and popular idioms to avant-garde techniques and multimedia works.
October 25: The 2024–25 Curtis Presents series kicks off with another “masterly nuanced performance” (Wall Street Journal) from the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence, featuring Joel Link (String Quartet ’14, Violin ’11), and Bryan Lee (String Quartet ’14, Violin ’11), violist Julianne Lee (Violin ’05), and Camden Shaw (String Quartet ’14, Cello ’11, ’10). This riveting program features Jessie Montgomery’s folk music-inspired Strum; Pura Fé’s Rattle Song, arranged by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate; a new, Curtis-led co-commissioned work for string quartet composed by Mr. Tate; and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet in F major, Op. 96 (“American”). Named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the two-time GRAMMY-nominated ensemble is one of the world’s most in-demand chamber ensembles. The prize-winning quartet was formed at Curtis in 2008, and its name pays tribute to the composition Dover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic; Shanshan Yao (Violin ’08), concert violinist and former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony and New York Philharmonic; Teng Li (Viola ’05), principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Nathan Vickery (Cello ’13), cellist in the New York Philharmonic. This phenomenal “Dream Quartet” continues to excite audiences with its distinctive sound and unanimity of expression.
“Mimi Stillman is not only a consummate and charismatic performer, but also a scholar. Her programs tend to activate, ear, heart, and brain.” —New York Times
Ms. Stillman is the founder and artistic director of 
I studied with two extraordinary teachers, the legendary Julius Baker, who brought me to C
My family and closest mentors encouraged me to find my path to be fulfilled personally and artistically. I encourage my students to think carefully about channeling their dedication and discipline to where their passion lies. While performing as a soloist and chamber musician after graduating from Curtis, I got my M.A. and did Ph.D. coursework in history at the University of Pennsylvania. It’s deeply rewarding for me to integrate music and history in my work as a performer, published author, and media host and in my curatorial vision for Dolce Suono Ensemble.
I feel blessed to share great music with others and to continually learn and grow while doing it. I strongly believe in the power of music to heal and bring people together, and love reaching communities who don’t have ease of access to concert music through outreach to people of all ages and diverse backgrounds. Growing up as a Spanish speaker with an affinity for Hispanic cultures led me organically to launch “Música en tus Manos” (Music in Your Hands), Dolce Suono Ensemble’s engagement initiative with Philadelphia’s Latino communities highlighting music by Latin American and Latino composers. I urge young musicians to embrace as many musical experiences as they can, to listen for those moments when something—a style, a genre, an interaction with another person through music—resonates with your inner voice as an artist.
Curtis Opera Theatre‘s 2023–24 series featured a captivating double bill of Francis Poulenc’s outrageously funny farce, Les Mamelles de Tirésias and Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s darkly satirical “ballet chanté,” The Seven Deadly Sins on March 15 and 17 at the Philadelphia Film Center.
Throughout the month, Curtis will be collaborating with various local arts institutions and ensembles to elevate the presence of new classical music in Philadelphia using the social media hashtag, #NewMusicPhilly. These organizations and artists include Bowerbird, the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Crossing, ENA Ensemble, Network for New Music, Penn Live Arts, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music, the Viano Quartet, Wildflower Composers, and a series of concerts at the Black Squirrel Club curated by Micah Gleason, the Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at Curtis.
Ensemble 20/21, finishes its sold-out year on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at Gould Rehearsal Hall with a “Portrait of George Lewis.” A diverse concert of highlights from the MacArthur Fellow, pioneering composer, musical polymath, and trombonist’s catalogue opens with The Deformation of Mastery, inspired by African American literary theorist Houston A. Baker Jr.’s influential book Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, a chamber orchestral work composed with the intent to break down and disrupt all notions of authenticity in Afrodiasporic sonic expression. This work is followed by his unnerving, quirkily percussive String Quartet 1.5: Experiments in Living and the striking work Anthem for mezzo-soprano, flute, tenor saxophone, drums, percussion, piano, violin, and electronics, which examines power and image, and how societies assign almost superhuman abilities to artists or bands with the expectation that the masses idolize and worship them.
